


How To Steer

by modd



Category: Motorcity
Genre: Gen, Horseback Riding, Horses, really dumb, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-08
Updated: 2013-02-08
Packaged: 2017-11-28 14:42:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/675548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/modd/pseuds/modd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Julie’s an isolated new girl at a new school.  She’s looking for something- anything of interest.  And what does she find?  A scruffy barn with a bunch of scruffy people.  It's perfect.  (An AU where the burner babes are all fifteen and spotty and instead of cars there are horses everywhere.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	How To Steer

Out of nowhere, the weather drops and Julie Kane finds herself curled up and blowing on her hands as her father picks her up from school.  He turns into the street and a few interested faces turn to look at the shiny black Chrysler as it sidles up to the curb.  Julie climbs into the passenger side, slamming her door closed.

When Julie asks why her dad chose to move her to a school so far away from anything, he says it’s because it offers a level of education that “You can bet your darndest you wouldn’t find anywhere else.”  Julie appreciates that her dad has so much faith in her academic abilities.  Julie’s smart, but unless she’s committed to something, she’ll only do what it takes to scrape through. 

Both Julie and her dad know that she switched schools because he wanted to get her away from her friends.  He always muttered under his breath that they were miscreants and talked about himself and Julie like they were some sort of higher pedigree.  His blatant criticism made her sick. 

When he told her she was moving, she battered her eyelashes and pouted with her soft red lips.  Might as well pull the daddy’s girl card for as long as it could last.  Abraham Kane just held her by the shoulder and shook his head.  His decision was final, and Julie wasn’t brave enough to argue with her dad wants he had set his mind on something.

Julie tries to punish him silently.  Whenever he talks to her, she tries to act as sad as possible, without actually being rude to him.  On the long drive home, they pass fields and fields.  It’s all Julie can see, no matter where she looks.  Her dad, with a quick side-glance, asks her how her day at school was. 

“It was fine, Dad.”

“Did you make any new friends, Julie Bear?”

Julie sighs loudly, and looks out the window. 

“No, Dad.  I didn’t.”

“Give it time, sweetheart.”

That is what he had said daily for two weeks, and Julie is bitterly sick of it.  Julie’s lying to her dad, too.  There  _is_  a girl in her class- a black kid named Claire, with pretty black hair pulled into a tight bun- that seems to be on her side.  Smiling to herself, Julie remembers that the first thing Claire said to her.  It wasn’t any sort of patient “Hello” or awkward formality.  Claire saw Julie, shrieked, and raced towards her.

“Girl, your hair is gorgeous!  How do you get it so straight?”

Even as a young kid, Julie liked her hair.  It was long, straight and the darkest shade of red she had ever seen on someone with natural hair.  She hadn’t seen it being the mutual ground for making friends.  Lucky shot, she supposes.

There’s a sudden bounce as the Chrysler speeds over a small crack in the road.

“Damn rural tracks, why don’t they ever clean this junk up?”

Julie doesn’t have an answer for him. 

It’s twenty minutes into the drive, and everything look the same.  Coming into view as they drive over a hill, Julie can see a barn.  It looks old and rusty, but it’s buzzing with life.  People are dipping in and out from it, muddy and dusty and wearing smiles that almost gave her toothache.  Out in the paddocks- she sees a group of horses grazing peacefully.  There’s a boy there- he looks like he might be around her age.  The road is in a bad way, and her father has to drive past slowly.  The boy in the paddock sees her.  He can see that she’s staring at him with empty curiosity.  To be friendly, the boy waves.  He’s got messy brown hair and tanned skin- Julie catches herself staring and quickly smiles before facing the other way.

As they drive past, she can’t help but risk a look behind her.  The boy’s still looking.  Next to him, she sees a black horse standing, watching her too.

**

The next day at school, Julie is armed with a mission.  She’s going to find out what the barn is called, and she’s going to find out that boy’s name too.  She goes to the first obvious person to ask about anything- but Claire isn’t sure.    
“Horses are way too messy for me, Jules.”

Julie notices with happiness that they’ve gotten to the point where nicknames are used.  Unintentionally impatient, Julie asks Claire if she knows who  _might_  know.  Claire picks up on the pushiness of her question straight away and she mulls the question over slowly, with full intent to irritate Julie. 

 “Hunh.  I guess you could talk to Tennie- she’s in our bio class.  I’ve heard she likes, like, farmy stuff.  You know, the one with pigtails?  She’s totally cute.”

In bio class, the teacher talks quickly and crisply.  Her words drift cleanly over Julie like a sheet of glass.  They don’t sink in at all.  Julie looks to the left of her, where Tennie sits.  She’s got her head bent down, furiously scribbling away at a piece of paper.  At first, Julie supposes she’s doing the work they’re assigned, but upon a precarious chair-lean she discovers that Tennie’s doodling.  She’s a brilliant artist, and Julie is finding herself looking at a complex, beautiful building.  There are little, half-circle windows and turrets.  It reminds Julie of a sea barnacle, almost.  Politely, Julie coughs a little to gain the other girls attention.  Tennie whips around to face her, and Julie’s surprised to find that Tennie’s face has a scatter of freckles across her small nose.  Her eyes are also big and brown and soft-looking.  Claire’s right about Tennie, she  _is_ totally cute. 

“Oh, heya- sorry.  I didn’t see you there,” Tennie says, smiling and looking down.  She might be shy.

“No, no.  I shouldn’t be sneaking up on you like that,” Julie responds kindly.  She flicks her red hair as a force of habit, and Tennie and Julie share an uncomfortable grin.

“So, hey, I have a question.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Do you know what the barn’s called, the one down by Clubs Road?”

Tennie’s a little bit shocked at the question, she wasn’t really expecting a girl like Julie to be interested in that kind of thing. 

“Yeah, actually.  My boyfriend goes there.  He calls it the Burner Barn.  Pretty intense, right?”

Boyfriend.  Julie’s heart feels like it sinks lower into her ribcage.  Without asking, she knows it will be the boy with messy brown hair she saw in the paddock yesterday.  Julie isn’t the type of person to get in the way of people that are already ‘involved’. 

Tennie ventures to ask if Julie wants to sit with her at lunch, and Julie politely agrees.

As they walk down the hall, Claire spies the pair walking towards the school field and speeds up until she’s right behind them and out of breath. 

Claire, Tennie and Julie.  The fashionista, the farm girl, and someone in-between.  


End file.
